this morning on "early today," tempers in washington are flaring as president obama stands up for his u.n. secretary against scathing criticism from republicans. all that while embattled former cia director david petraeus will testify on capital hill today. breaking news from the middle east as rockets are fired between the israelis and palestinians. this morning three israelis are killed. a live report coming up. >> announcer: this is "early today" for thursday, november 15th, 2012. good morning,er one. i'm lynn berry. and today one scandal will give way to another in washington. former cia director david

petraeus is expected to testify in a closed door senate intelligence committee hearing. general petraeus is not expected to discuss his personal indiscretions that ended his career last week. instead, he'll be talking about details on the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. the controversy over u.n. ambassador san rice calling the assault spontaneous back in september has reached a boiling point. yesterday president obama in his first news conference since re-election exploded at republican finger pointing over rice. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me, but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing to do with benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had

received and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous. >> earlier sense tore mccain and graham vowed to stop her confirmation. >> i don't trust her. the reason i don't trust her. is i think she knew better. >> we will do whatever is necessary to stop the nomination. back to petraeus. t"the wall street journal" says he was already at odds with james clapper after the cia wanted them to fight back publicly for its role in benghazi. we do have new details on the personal scandal that has enveloped petraeus and john allen from nbc's andrea mitchell who broke the story. >> reporter: at his news conference the president went out of his way to praise petraeus. >> he has provided this country an extraordinary service. we are safer because of the work

that dave petraeus has done. >> reporter: as paula broadwell remained in washington staying with her brother and still not talking, officials say the investigation was triggered in may when general john allen received an e-mail from an account called kelley patrol. sources close to kelly say it warned the general to stay away from her, that she could ruin him. general allen says people close to jill kelley forwarded it to her on the account she shares with her husband scott thinking she sent it as a joke. sources close to kelley said she had told general allen she had not sent it but was concerned she was being stalked or electronically hacked because it referred to a meeting they had scheduled in washington the following week. in june she and her husband received as many as four different e-mails from different accounts telling jill she's up to no good and asking her husband, do you know what your wife is up to when she has dinner with general petraeus. she turned over all of her e-mails to an fbi agent she knew

never realizing the i will pact they would have. jill kelley never had an affair with general allen. the e-mails had enough inappropriate language to warrant an investigation. >> no one should leap to any conclusions here. general allen is doing an excellent job at isaf in leading those forces. he certainly has my continued confidence to lead our forces and to at this point the fight. >> reporter: the fbi continues looking through documents they took monday night from broadwell's home but so far have found no evidee of anything highly classified. the pentagon suspended broadwell's security clearances and they revoked jill kelley's pass to the air force base. overseas now where fears of a new war in the middle east are on the rise after israeli's took out the top israeli commander of hamas. just this morning the first israeli fatalities. three people killed in rocket

fire from the gaza strip. nbc's martin fletcher is live with us in tel aviv. good morning to you. >> reporter: they were standing on their balcony watching and waiting to see where the bombs would fall against all the odds had they been inside the building they probably wouldn't have been killed. the israelis are telling all of their people in the south of israel, do what you're told. stay inside. stay inside the bomb shelters. there are many rocket attacks still coming from gaza into israel. israel is continuing to attack hamas targets inside gaza. at least 11 palestinians have been killed. there was a funeral this morning for the hamas leader who was killed yesterday. hamas leaders did not attend the funeral because they're afraid of being assassinated by israel. israel's aims are to target the hamas leaders as they killed the millitent leader of hamas and at the same time and in particular

to take out hamas's rocket capability. that's almost as significant as the killing yesterday. they had great success in knocking out the long rage rockets that hamas has that threatened the central cities. the two sides on the edge of a war. we don't know how this is going to play out. >> that continues to play out this morning. martin fletcher, live from tel aviv. nbc meteorologist bill karins is here for a check of your weather center forecast. yesterday you said a lot about the storm you were tracking next week. >> it was borderline if it was going to affect areas hit by sandy. trends are off shore. things are looking nice as we approach the holidays next weekend. let's talk about what's happened out there. i mentioned that there was an amazing northern lights show going on. this is a picture from the top of mount washington. highest spots in new england. 6,000 feet in new hampshire. there's a weather observatory where they do 24 hour weather

observations and they have these amazing images of the northern lights. it was a great show from michigan all the way through vermont and maine. this image captured it well. as far as what's going on out there, not much. nice quiet weather period across the country. another chilly start in the 30s for many people, even the 40s in the deep south. it's a cold, dry air mass pretty much covering much of the nation. doesn't have a lot of tropical origins to it. it's a polar air mass. the only area of rain that we have is down here in the southeast. it's a pretty good solid shield of light rain, even lightening strikes from georgia into south carolina. now trying to go up to wilmington and areas of charlot charlotte. those are the areas that need an umbrella. a nice afternoon from denver all the way to the east coast. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside yourwindow. temperatures today in the 40s and 50s.

even areas in the deep south will be in the 60ed. nice day in dallas, 66. denver, 49. same with washington, d.c., near 50. so now it doesn't look like we have to worry about the next coastal storm. we may be, knock knock, clear all the way to thanks fwifg. >> whoa, bill, don't jinx us. let's be careful. thank you for the knocks. bitter words from mitt romney about the election. plus, could a chemical keep men from cheating? details on a new study are next. you're watching "early today." >> announcer: brought to you by the makers of centrum men and women. have you taken the most complete multi-vitamin today?

stories making news this morning. former republican presidential nominee mitt romney was on a conference call with some of his top campaign donors when he said that president obama defeated him by giving things to blacks, hispanics, and young voters. >> the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them

extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. louisiana's republican governor bobby jindal criticized romney saying we have to stop dividing the american voters, we need to go after 100% of the vote, not 53%. as expected xi jing ping is the new president of china. next to colorado where a hearing today for james holmes, the man accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens more in the movie theater shooting, has been delayed because he was hospitalized. holmes reportedly ran into a jail cell wall and jumped off his bed but there were no details about his condition. fiscal cliff fierce hit wall street wednesday. selling picked up during president obama's media briefing about those upcoming tax cut

negotiations. today we'll see what impact the fed has. chief ben bernanke speaks this afternoon. also on deck, before the bell earnings from walmart and target, retail sales dropped in october after three months' gain. later today, bp is expected to announce it will pay the largest penalty in history to settle criminal and other claims from the 2010 gulf oil disaster. new york's state attorney general has subpoenaed documents related to sandy-related prep and procedure from both con ed and long island power authority. the fda says over the past five years 5-hour energy shots have been cited in the deaths of five people. monster has been tied to five fatalities. pizza chain papa jons is under fire after sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited text messages to its customers. plaintiffs are seeking $250 million in a class action lawsuit. say it isn't so. twinkie's gone by thanksgiving?

hostess says if striking workers don't return to the job by the end of the day, it will be forced to liquidate. after years in the making some kansas city folks are the first in the world to test drive google's new super fast broadband service. the 2014 winter olympic games in sochi are still more than a year away. folks in moscow are already getting their hands on official merchandise. and could big farm ma have something in the pipeline to keep men from cheating. a small study showed men who were given oxytocin stayed farther away from unknown attractive women. there you go. well, a wild turkey strikes back just a week before thanksgiving. we'll show you the video. plus, the thrill of a lifetime for one 9-year-old boy. details are next. you're watching "early today."

other stories making news on this thursday in america. we begin with a deeply emotional account from the homeowner whose indianapolis home is believed to be the epicenter of a deadly explosion. in the wake of the powerful blast that killed two people and leveled an entire neighborhood. monty shirley has endured questions and speculation about her role in the explosion. >> people keep asking me questions and questions like i

know something. i don't know nothing. next to connecticut where a fearless wild turkey tried to pick a fight with drivers one week before thanksgiving. the bird who has a history of violence approached and pecked a few cars. this is the same foul also known as frankenturkey for his car attacks on thanksgiving. now in new jersey, a military jacket belonging to a world war ii vet washed ashore after hurricane sandy. officials at west point were notified. they did some digging and now they plan to clean and return the jacket to the 98-year-old widow of the soldier it belonged to. she'll be thrilled about that. now in sports we begin with some action in nba. memphis won its sixth game in a row. 28 points were scored in a 107-97 victory over the thunder. in college basketball, eric murphy of number 10 florida was a perfect ten for ten from the field for 24 points as the gators pulled away and rolled over number 22 wisconsin, 74-56.

well to baseball now where tampa bay's david price was voted the american league cy young award winner with 20 wins this season. and 38-year-old r.a. dickey who won 28 games for the mets won the cy young award. he's the first knuckle ball pitcher to win the award. missy franklin of colorado won four gold medals at the london olympics. she holds the world record in the 400 meter backstroke. she signed a letter of intent to go to the university of california at berkeley before competing in the 2016 games in rio de janeiro. and in oklahoma, talk about heartwarming here. a 9-year-old boy who loves sports named jason smith jr. has muscular dystrophy. he's confined to a wheelchair. that's not going to stop him. his twin brother plays football and their father who coaches a team put him in the game and a

teammate pushed him all the way to the end zone for a touchdown. >> it was very surprising. >> just to get in and see that big smile on his face like that, that was a great feeling. >> the big smile lasts. this will be a moment young jason will never forget. just ahead, it is movie night at the white house with the cast and crew of "lincoln" on the guest list. john bon jovi's taught ter is in hot water. plus, ben affleck's comments about the newest sexiest man alive. you're going to want to see this. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." i'm happy to report the trend continues. this next storm is going to be further off the coast. the chances of it hitting the coast is less and less. the storm monday and tuesday off the coast, i don't even think we'll get any rain. maybe a little bit higher surf and that's it. that will be great. forecast for today, nice, chilly morning out there. typical of this time of year. this afternoon we warm it up to the 40s and 50s in most areas, lynn. airports looking great. travel is fine. nice, tranquil weather pattern. bill, thanks so much. ab lincoln is returning to the white house tonight. steven spielberg and members of the cast of "lincoln" will be joining president obama for a screening of the film. cast members expected to attend are daniel guy lewis, sally field and tommy lee jones. i can't wait to see the movie. >> do you think this will compare, me and the president. >> it will be a tossup.

all right. stephanie bon jovi, the 19-year-old singer of john bon jovi was hospitalized and faces charges after a heroin charges. they found her unresponsive in a dorm on her college campus. police later found heroin, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia in the room. that led to her arrest. dave matthews band is the latest group to pledge aid to hurricane sandy victims. the band is going to be donating all money from the sales of the november 30th concert. and finally access hollywood, they asked ben affleck, the 2002 sexiest man alive if channing tatum is deserving of the title. check out what he had to say. >> i think he is and always has been. channing's a really good guy. is he here yet? he's a very good guy and extremely, extremely sexy man. what else can you say? >> romance alert. access hollywood.com ran a poll asking readers if they thought

channing is the sexiest man alive. 65% said no. were you surprised? >> no, he's fine. >> dodging the question. >> i wouldn't go as far as extremely sexy. that's where he got in trouble. he's the sexy man. >> one sexy. >> yeah, not extremely. and this comes to us from atlantic highlands, new jersey, where a romantic discovery right out of the movies was made along a beach area hit by hurricane sandy. this is really sweet. a family recovering from the superstorm found a stack of 57 love letters a among scattered debris. they detail a six year love affair between a world war ii vet and the woman he had met at a wedding. the two were later married in 1948. the owner of the letters was tracked down and the intensely personal letters will be returned to 91-year-old dottie. i'm lynn berry, this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

4:28 is the your time. 43 degrees. we'll have your forecast in just a moment. a fresh round of criticism as the deadly attack in libya stakes center stage on capitol hill. welcome on this thursday, november 15th, 2012. a deadly officer-involved shooting off riverdale road. the sheriff deputy tried to serve a peace order, which is similar to a protective order.

a woman answered the door and let him in. a man came out from another room with a gun. neighbors say knowing someone died on their street is disturbing. >> what really happened? i don't know. but the thought that this is our neighborhood and is is knowing these people. >> the sheriff's deputy is now on administrative leave. surveillance photos show the man who robbed a walmart and shot a store manager. we brought you this as breaking news yesterday morning. the gunman came in the store and demanded money from an employee. the store manager followed him out into the parking lot where the shooting happened. he was taken to the hospital. he is expected to survive. 24 hours after that robbery, police are still looking for the gunman. prince george's county police officers are starting to get their first pay raises in four